Liars – Mess

Liars’ seventh album is undeniably, blatantly a Mute Records album, not just in practical terms but also in spiritual terms; the album plays like a homage to the glory days of the label, coursing through D.A.F. affectations, highly-strung synths right out of Nitzer Ebb’s armoury and wonky excursions through Depeche Mode’s more outré dalliances, or, more recently, their VCMG offshoot.

By and large, it’s a beast of a record and free from overtly po-faced earnestness – the album begins with an approximation of Giorgio Moroder’s massive synth bass from I Feel Love and a robot voice exhorting the listener to ‘take my pants off… smell my socks.’ It gets better, Angus Andrew's vocals – often falsetto – become interchangeable with the über-restless electronics, peaking on I’m No Gold, the most obviously danceable track on show. Crucially, the trio don’t sound like a rock band experimenting with synths; Mess sounds like synths are experimenting with the band. Maybe drums are dead, after all.